Fight Financial Fraud With Tricks of Your Own

[EvrClrx311]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bssc There is a Cosmo/Agape thread on Fatwallet. People tried to explain compound interest to the "potential" investors but it didn't work. And some of the scamsters showed up to tout the company as Legit. And they were listed in Entrepreneur magazine as the number 73 growing business in the US. It was all amusing. But people want to get rich quick. The original thread here

WOW! So I did a scan through the 23 pages of text and there was some really interesting stuff going on in that thread... the one that really stood out to me was on page 18:

Within a few days of someone uncovering Nick Cosmo's history as a convicted felon (now posted to this thread that showed up as the #2 link under a google search for his company)... this post was made by Nick Cosmo.

Quote:

NickCosmo(new user) posted: Aug. 4, 2008 @ 6:34p I am Nicholas J. Cosmo. I am 37 years old and was raised in Wantagh, NY. I have been the President of Agape World Inc. since 2000. I have watched my company grow to over 5,000 investors. Today I would like to address this unauthorized blog from former and current Agape clients. I did commit a felony when I was associated with a firm called Continental Broker Dealer. My NASD license was suspended but not revoked due to my cooperation with the investigation into my former employer. I take full responsibility for my actions then and now. My debt to society and the 8 clients affected has been paid back by a fine and jail time. Today, I owe no apologies to anyone for my actions which occured over 12 years ago. I have paid for my mistakes in my life and over a decade ago, I lost everything I had. This included my fiancee and an early part of my sons life, but never my family or my true friends. The incredible success of Agape World Inc. over the last 12 years since my mistake has given me the opportunity to give back ten fold, to my business ventures, my community involvements and through charitable contributions and events. I invite any client, be that current, former or future, to come to my office, sit down with me face to face to address any questions they might have with my morals or my ethics. I am truly Nicholas Joseph Cosmo... I am the PROUD President of Agape World Inc. - a legitimate hard money asset based lender...I can firmly state that any non-believer will not be able to find ONE Agape World Inc. client that has not been paid back their investment plus interest over the last decade. NOT ONE! Thank you and GOD BLESS!!!!!!!!

This was 5 months before he was arrested for the $400 million ponzi scheme. An attempt to keep his companies name afloat as this thread became the #2 link on google when people searched Agape World... it was clearly a problem for him.

25 years isn't enough for this guy...

[Mulligan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvrClrx311 WOW! So I did a scan through the 23 pages of text and there was some really interesting stuff going on in that thread... the one that really stood out to me was on page 18: Within a few days of someone uncovering Nick Cosmo's history as a convicted felon (now posted to this thread that showed up as the #2 link under a google search for his company)... this post was made by Nick Cosmo. This was 5 months before he was arrested for the $400 million ponzi scheme. An attempt to keep his companies name afloat as this thread became the #2 link on google when people searched Agape World... it was clearly a problem for him. 25 years isn't enough for this guy...

Cosmo said on the show he is trying to get his years reduced, because it was excessive. Plus he said he wants to get out of jail earlier so he can help pay off the $400 million he owes. How could he possibly do that? Start a new ponzi scheme to pay off the old one? I read some of those pages on the fat wallet thread. Very interesting. Those guys weren't buying it know matter what evidence was being presented on the forum. If only the investors had half the skepticism, they wouldn't be out of their money.

[packrat44]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bssc There is a Cosmo/Agape thread on Fatwallet. People tried to explain compound interest to the "potential" investors but it didn't work. And some of the scamsters showed up to tout the company as Legit. And they were listed in Entrepreneur magazine as the number 73 growing business in the US. It was all amusing. But people want to get rich quick. The original thread here

I think I will go out and "invest" some money in lottery tickets.

[brett]

Affinity fraud is one of the fastest growing white collar crimes in North America.

Someone you trust and respect, often at your church recommends this 'great' investment. They bought in and are getting cheques for 25-40 percent interest.

So you buy in, anxious to make up for some of your past losses. If your friend/fellow churchgoer is doing this, then it must be legit. Right? Wrong.

Your friend, or your friend's friend is getting a five point commission on every doller reeled in from the patsys like you who do not bother to check and who see no danger in a 'sure thing' that is making 40-70 points,,,,,after all the bank is only paying 2 points.

You might get a few interest payments and be persuaded to invest more and get some of your friends and relatives to invest.

Then all goes quiet, maybe the cheques don't arrive when they should. Maybe the whole scheme is a ponzi and at best you are left with no savings. At worst, you have even re-financed your home to invest or cashed in those 401K's.

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bssc There is a Cosmo/Agape thread on Fatwallet. People tried to explain compound interest to the "potential" investors but it didn't work. And some of the scamsters showed up to tout the company as Legit. And they were listed in Entrepreneur magazine as the number 73 growing business in the US. It was all amusing. But people want to get rich quick. The original thread here

Thanks for that link. Amazing read. Tag team ripoff. It's unsettling to see how easiy some people are deceived.

[growing_older]

I was approached by a ponzi scheme a couple years ago, and it was rather crude and obviously an unwise arrangement, yet apparently they landed about $10 million in "investments" from people taken in.

Lawrence "Lee" Loomis Ponzi Scheme Halted by SEC - Boston Accident Injury Lawyer

The notion was that they would invest in bulk rental property bought from distressed developers, then rent them out. The "investors" would personally sign for the mortgage, but payments would supposedly be made from the rental income. Surplus would accumulate in the secret investment account (mandatory participation) that was run by his father in law, and would show great paper gains on the "investment" but could not be accessed for many years.

I suspect that people who were taken in not only lost their entire investment when it was revealed that the secret account was not actually being invested, but being spent by insiders. They were also still holding mortgage debt on distressed property, just in time for real estate prices to drop.

[packrat44]

I am amazed at all my good fortune. Every day I receive a couple of emails congratulating me for winning some lottery. I guess I must be naive; I used to think I would have to purchase a lottery ticket before I would have a chance at winning.

[Mill]

Good thread. Im a scambaiter, in fact its my main hobby. Its free (minus some small donations to pay server fees) and very rewarding. Hopefully I can devote more time to it in early retirement. I think the scariest fraud threats are phishing emails that look like they come from a bank. If you ever come across one of these, please forward it to the bank its impersonating, along with the source code of the email. (usually abuse@ name of bank.) Their anti-fraud team will work to put a stop to it.

I came across this article years ago. Stories like this keep me dedicated to devoting as much freetime as possible to fighting these crooks.


Driven to suicide by a "419" scam | General News 2010-08-19

Quote:

General News of Thursday, 19 August 2010 Yonkers, NY (WABC) -- A New York father is dead and his family believes it's all because he was sucked into an international romance and money scheme (419), causing him to lose everything and even steal from relatives. "I saw him sitting in a chair with a bullet in his head," Peter Circelli said. Circelli believes his father, Al, felt he had no way out, committing suicide in the living room of his Yonkers home after realizing a romance to riches fantasy he'd bought into was a scam. It was only after Peter started going thru his father's belongings that the son discovered his dad's shocking secret, starting with a pile of western union money transfers to the country of Ghana, a notorious location for romance scams. "They say Ghana, $300. Ghana, $200," he explained. "We've added them all up and they come to the sum of $50,000." On Circelli's laptop, his son discovered email photos and messages supposedly from a woman calling herself Aisha, who promised to come here and start a new life, giving the divorced retired businessman a future and a fortune. "She had money in a bank and was going to transfer the money to him," Circelli said. But first, she claimed she needed money transferred to her in Ghana via someone named Nulu Suleman for expenses. At some point, Al Circelli ran out of his own money, and started taking it from his son. He took out credit cards in his son's name and got advances. Peter's credit is "above and beyond destroyed." Peter is a respected small business owner who runs a successful body shop and towing company in Englewood, New Jersey. He owns the home his father lived in, and just discovered his father had stopped making mortgage payments. "This house is in foreclosure. I'm most likely going to lose this house," he said. "It's destroyed me. It's destroyed my family." The day Al Circelli killed himself, he thought Aisha would be arriving on a Delta flight. She, of course, never showed up. "What he did because of something like this, I can't even imagine it," Circelli said. And in one final bizarre twist on Tuesday, Peter found a message on his dad's laptop from Nulu Suleman saying Aisha, or Shanda, had killed herself -- "blown her head off in Chicago." "It can't be tracked. These people are like ghosts and the damage these people have caused, they shouldn't be able to cause in other people's lives," Circelli said. "To see him go down like this, to think there are other families who might have to go through something like this, I have to open my mouth. I can't hide no more."

[EvrClrx311]

This is the story that got me interested in scam baiting was an episode on A&E that aired a few years ago called Intervention.

(scroll down and click on the Episode labeled "Greg")

http://www.aetv.com/intervention/epi.../season-7/#105

... the combination of the disability, medications and depression made this guy the perfect target. Those are the types of individuals who are likely to commit suicide when they finally come to grips with what has actually happened. For him... it seemed like holding onto the idea that it was real was the only thing that kept him going in life.

[kombat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvrClrx311 if I just threw $1,000 into that scheme out of college and left it alone... I'd have $23.9 trillion by the time I was 70.

Yabbut inflation would reduce it to an equivalent of only $7.7 trillion. People always forget to account for inflation.

[EvrClrx311]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kombat Yabbut inflation would reduce it to an equivalent of only $7.7 trillion. People always forget to account for inflation.

dang... you're right. Guess I'd just work 'one more year' for another decade or so to try and make up for it.

[jebmke]

I recently attended a seminar on elder abuse. I am a TaxAide volunteer so I deal with the elderly a lot. The speakers claimed (no data) that elder abuse, of which, financial fraud is considered a subset, is more often than not perpetrated by a family member (often the children). They didn't have any comments on fraud vs. physical/psychological abuse.

We do see a lot of seniors who are clearly getting hosed by their brokers. Not allowed to say anything but it is sad to see.

[EvrClrx311]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jebmke We do see a lot of seniors who are clearly getting hosed by their brokers. Not allowed to say anything but it is sad to see.

Sadly, this problem is only going to worsen as more of the boomers reach retirement. Hopefully policy can stay a step ahead of the scammers... or at least shut them down before they can do too much damage.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jebmke We do see a lot of seniors who are clearly getting hosed by their brokers. Not allowed to say anything but it is sad to see.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvrClrx311 Sadly, this problem is only going to worsen as more of the boomers reach retirement. Hopefully policy can stay a step ahead of the scammers... or at least shut them down before they can do too much damage.

There's no policy because the brokers aren't scammers. They may (or may not) be unethical crooks, but they aren't scammers. So there's no way to go after them unless they cross a fiduciary line.

[jebmke]

I may be mistaken (my wife says I usually am), most brokers are not fiduciaries.